In the field of flight applications, there is an ongoing effort to improve the capacity and space/weight efficiency of thermal systems configured to transfer heat away from various types of thermal sources. During normal operation, electrical and electronic equipment typically generate enough heat (e.g., through resistive heating) that conventional mounting and electrical lead connections are insufficient to maintain operation within generally applicable thermal limits, particularly when the equipment is enclosed in a cowling or placed in a vacuum and fluid/gas immersion is unavailable. For example, heat transfer for space flight applications relies on the ability to transfer heat from one or more thermal sources to a relatively large radiator (e.g., a thermal sink), which can be used to radiate excess heat (e.g., as black body radiation) out into space.
Conventional thermal regulation systems employ a number of techniques to convey heat from thermal sources to thermal sinks strategically placed throughout a vehicle. However, these conventional systems are typically relatively heavy and require space in which to form thermal links to the thermal sinks.
Moreover, because space and weight are a premium in flight applications, retrofitting thermal regulation systems (e.g., to account for increased thermal load due to feature creep/innovation during the design and manufacture process) can be extremely complex and costly. Thus, there is a need for an improved methodology to provide relatively efficient thermal regulation/transfer systems both in terms of overall capacity or thermal transfer throughput and overall space and weight used to implement the system.